Bill Cramer and Family – 50 Years of Dedication to Business and Community

BY VAL SCHOGER PHOTOS BY ERIC MARCUS

The year 2015 marks half a century of success in business for Bill Cramer and family. In July, hundreds of friends, customers, and business partners participated in the 50-year anniversary celebration of what is now the Bill Cramer Chevrolet Cadillac Buick GMC dealership in Panama City. At the event, held in front of the rededicated American Flag, Bill and Carolyn Cramer shared highlights of their careers and lives.

Carolyn said about her husband of 40 years, Bill, “I have never met a man who has more integrity, is as smart, and who works as hard as Bill. In all his civic and community activities as well as at work, he believes in never just doing a job half way but rather he tackles every job and every challenge with thoughtfulness and integrity. I could not be prouder of the way he has marched through the gates of opportunities. I am proud to be his partner.”

THE EARLY YEARS

Bill and Carolyn first met in 1971 when Bill’s father, Bill Cramer Sr., took the family to Panama City Beach on a vacation. Bill’s father was a former member of both the Florida and U. S. House of Representatives, where he served the Pinellas County area for more than 16 years. Remarkably, he was the first Republican elected to Congress from Florida since Reconstruction. Carolyn’s father, L. E. “Tommy” Thomas was one of the few Republicans calling Florida’s panhandle home and was a strong supporter of Cramer.

Tommy Thomas, of course, is a local legend. He started the family’s Chevrolet dealership in Bay County in 1965 and is remembered for his patriotism, giving heart, leadership, and commercial success. Politics, specifically the Republican Party, is what initially connected the two families, but it would be the automotive business that brought them back to Panama City.

Bill and Carolyn met again in Miami at the Republican Convention in 1972. In 1974 they began dating while in their senior years in college. Bill was attending the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Carolyn was at Queens College in Charlotte, North Carolina. They were married in 1975 after Bill’s first year at Harvard Law School. He earned a B.A. in Mathematics from the UNC, where he earned membership in Phi Beta Kappa, and a J.D. from Harvard in 1977. Carolyn’s degree from Queens College is in American Studies, with a second bachelor’s degree in Finance from FSU.

The summer after graduation from college, Carolyn served as an intern in the White House while Bill worked at his father’s Washington law firm. She witnessed President Nixon’s last months in office and was present at his resignation. Running for political office, however, was not a tradition either Bill or Carolyn chose to carry on.

“Politics was my father’s profession, and it was Tommy’s passion. Carolyn and I came from different viewpoints. It was a mutual agreement not to run for public office. There are a lot of other ways to contribute to a community,” says Bill Cramer.

At first the couple’s plans revolved around his career as an attorney. Bill worked as a law clerk for a Federal Court Appeals Judge in Jacksonville, Florida, and intended to practice at a firm there. During a visit to Jacksonville for a Chevrolet meeting, Tommy Thomas invited Carolyn and Bill out to dinner.

“Out of the blue, Tommy asked me to join the Chevrolet dealership in Panama City. Carolyn’s brother Bill, who was slated to succeed his father as the Chevrolet dealer in Panama City, had acquired his own dealership in Pensacola, and Tommy wanted to keep the business in the family. To say that Carolyn and I were surprised is a gross understatement. My first reaction was to decline because it was such a shock.”

Tommy Thomas was very convincing when he had set his mind to something and he made Bill a simple offer: “Come to work for two years and, if it works out, it will be great for both of us; if it doesn’t, then you can always go back to practicing law. Besides, I’ll have taught you a little about the real world in the meantime!”

“That was 36 years ago and we haven’t had time to look back,” says Bill Cramer. “I started work as an advisor in the service department for the first 18 months. Tommy made sure that I had the opportunity to work in each department: parts, body shop, sales… I learned about each aspect of the business. It was invaluable to get to know the employees and work with them first hand.”

Characteristically humble, Bill fails to mention the accomplishments that followed. His son Chris fills in. “During my dad’s time in the finance department he created the first leasing software before it was readily available in the industry.”

The dealership was able to take advantage of the revolutionary computer developments and create efficiencies that would keep them on the front edge of the market and customer satisfaction.

Bill explains that the software would have been highly marketable. “We were now giving customers a better experience and faster turnaround and service, but it would have been a full-time job for a team to develop and maintain the software. I had to make a decision whether to be in the car business or the software business.”

In addition, Bill helped his father-in-law realize his expansion plans for the business by overseeing the construction and moving the dealership from its location on 15th Street to the newlybuilt dealership on 23rd Street.

FAMILY

Bill and Carolyn’s daughter Emily was born in Jacksonville, just two months before they moved to Panama City. Sons Chris and Will were born in the early 80s in Bay County. Carolyn would focus on the children and community activities while commuting to Tallahassee for her second bachelor’s degree in Finance and Bill’s involvement with the business freed up time for his father-in-law’s political engagements.

Today, Emily is a teacher at a college in South Georgia where she lives with her husband, a forest ecologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and two children. Local newspaper readers will remember her from her days as a lively contributing writer for The News Herald as she studied abroad in Italy. Later, she became a full-time reporter. Will joined the dealership in 2004 and is now the Chief Financial Officer. Chris joined in 2005 and is the General Sales Manager. Six grandchildren, aged 1 to 6, are keeping Bill and Carolyn entertained nowadays. “One of the highlights of our lives was when our two sons decided to come to work for the dealership. Will and Chris have exceptional capabilities and different strengths in different areas that complement each other very well,” Bill and Carolyn state with pride.

Will said he appreciated the freedom his family gave him to follow his own career path. “Our grandparents and parents wanted us to go our own way. When Chris and I decided to join the dealership, it was our choice. There was never any pressure. You could not ask for better people to learn from, since our parents have been involved with the dealership most of their lives.”

Chris adds, “Having the experience passed on is a huge benefit for both of us. I actually started working in the dealership much sooner, during my summer vacation when I was 14. I was really proud and thought, ‘Yeah, I will be selling cars for the summer.’ Mom drove me up on the first day in the morning. Dad had waited for me and said the two most powerful words in the dealership business: ‘follow me.’ He then walked me to the service department and handed me a broom.”

Like their father did decades before, when Chris and Will began their career at the dealership, they started working in the service department and went through the other departments to learn about all aspects of the business.

How do the Cramers keep the balance between family and business? “We don’t discuss business matters at the dinner table,” says Carolyn. “Family comes first and business comes after that. We have family meetings and work meetings.”

A tradition since the business started, decisions are made collectively during scheduled management meetings each Wednesday with a large part of the decision-making being dedicated to determining the involvement and donation of funding and time to local charitable groups.

COMMUNITY AND GIVING

Bill Cramer explains, “Commitment to public service is a big part of who we are. Tommy used to call it ‘paying your civic rent.’ We live in a community and we have a business in that community. This makes us responsible to pay back and help make the community better. One of the best ways to do so from my perspective is in helping education advance. I spent almost 20 years on the Board of Trustees at the Gulf Coast State College. It was a community college in those days and it represents one of the most rewarding experiences I’ve ever had.”

He was appointed to the Board of Trustees in 1987 and served as chairman for 15 of those 20 years. During his tenure, he chaired three major fundraising campaigns for the college foundation. “I had the honor to work with the late Dr. Bob McSpadden, president of the college, for two decades. Early on, we set the goal of growing our foundation, which had about $1.7 million in 1987, to the point where we could provide scholarships for every deserving student in our area. With unprecedented support from the community and a team effort, we increased the college’s foundation endowment by about $40 million by 2007. We’ve been awarding about $1 million in scholarships each year for the past decade or so.”

In 2005, the Association of Community College Trustees named Bill Cramer the nation’s most outstanding trustee leader. “This award was a result of the college’s accomplishments. It was a privilege to be a part of the nation’s best team,” Bill Cramer states.

The Cramers answer requests of community organizations by devoting their time and resources. Carolyn spent decades improving Holy Nativity Episcopal Day School, including aiding in the acquisition and remodeling of the old Cove School. Chris serves on the board of directors for Big Brothers Big Sisters and Will serves on the boards of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Bay County, the United Way, and the Bay County Chamber of Commerce.

The dealership also supports many other organizations. In partnership with the News
Herald, they established and continue to sponsor the annual Empty Stocking Fund campaign, where they help the Salvation Army raise funds, around $200,000 every year. The Red Cross sees their support with two annual Blood Drives and the Cramers are looking back on 50 years of membership with United Way. In 2014, Bill Cramer Chevrolet Cadillac Buick GMC was the sixth largest contributor in the community to the United Way. Half of this amount was contributed by the employees, which was matched dollar-fordollar by the dealership with a total of $42,500 given to United Way last year.

BUSINESS THROUGHOUT THE YEARS

In 50 years of business, the family has faced challenges with every economic downturn.

Bill Cramer recounts the market and industry changes. “Just prior to 1979, the automobile business experienced two of its best years, which were followed by some of the toughest times in the business, the recession during Jimmy Carter’s presidency. I remember that we had a 21 percent interest rate and the inflation rate was at 11 percent. It was an extremely difficult time for the business, but it was a very valuable learning experience. I believe you learn far more from adversity than from success. You had to focus on managing your inventory and expenses during that time just to survive. A lot of dealerships did not make it.

The biggest jump in business was in the first month we opened the dealership on 23rd Street in July 1985. The manufacturers came out with the first interest rate program. At the time, it was 7.5 %, which was much better than the 21%. It was a quantum leap for the business.

The car industry had another very good run from the mid-1990s to the early 2000s. During that period there was a big shift in the industry. Prior to the 1990s, dealerships were family owned. Then some of the big public companies started buying up dealerships and the dealership valuations reached historic highs. A lot of dealers chose to sell. We believe that family ownership is of real value to our customers and employees. Simply put, this is our home and we feel an obligation to make it a better place to live.

Until then, we had experienced two downturns in the ‘80s and ‘90s, and I knew that we had to be prepared. It is a cyclical market and it taught me that no matter how good business is today, there will be a downturn to come.

This is a point that Tommy impressed upon me. I was very fortunate to have him as a role model. Tragically, he passed away in 1996, but his example motivated me to plan for the next recession. I had no idea what actually lay ahead.

The financial crisis that erupted in 2008 was unprecedented and threatened the very existence of GM and the automobile business as we knew it. In December of 2008, Congress declined to give financial support to Chrysler and GM. The next day President George W. Bush approved the emergency aid.

There was a period of six months when business was terrible. At the same time the opportunity to buy the Pontiac, Cadillac, Buick, and GMC franchises presented itself.”

Carolyn remembers, “On the day it was announced in the newspaper that we were buying the franchises, there was also another article about General Motors’ looming bankruptcy. We did have a brief moment of thinking ‘Are we crazy?’”

Her husband nods, “It could have potentially been a very bad decision, but I had confidence that GM would survive and that the market would recover. So, I decided to purchase the franchises and change the name of the dealership. There was a lot of uncertainty. People were reluctant to spend money on anything but it would be important to show my confidence in GM and demonstrate this confidence by growing the dealership at this crucial time.

The best way to show my commitment was to put my name on the door. Out of respect to Tommy, and because ‘Tommy Thomas’ and ‘Chevrolet’ were synonymous in Panama City, we had proudly kept the name until then. We changed the name not just because we believed in the future of General Motors but also because we were no longer just a Chevrolet dealer, we were a full-line GM dealership.”

Times have proven him right and community members recognized the family’s dedication. Carolyn remembers: “We received a letter out of the blue from a lady we had known for a long time. It was totally unexpected, and in the letter she wrote, ‘Thank you for believing that things will get better.’ It meant a lot to us. We still have the letter today.”

Adding the franchises has made a huge difference to the volume of business of the dealership, which required hiring significantly more employees. The number went from 60 to about 130 full-time staff members. Significant improvements and expansions to the service and parts department had to be made to accommodate the additional brands, and a Certified Service Express department was added to provide quick turn-around maintenance.

“A large portion of our success is based on the outstanding employees who have been with the dealership throughout the years. We have people who have been here for almost 50 years. They are like an extension of our family. Everybody knows what everyone expects of each other and how to take care of customers” says Bill. “On average, our employees are here for 10 years, which is a bit diluted because we’ve more than doubled our workforce since 2009. We like to offer our employees a career and try to promote from within the company to provide opportunities for advancement. Working side by side, year after year, is what we like to do.

We think 2015 will be the best year of our entire history.”

BUSINESS AND POLITICS – THE LEGACY OF L. E. “TOMMY” THOMAS

L. E. “Tommy” Thomas stood 6 ft. 5 inches tall and had an imposing presence. He built and grew his Chevrolet dealership, wanted it to stay in the family, and planned far ahead. He was self-motivated and self-made, says his family. “He was the epitome of somebody who lived the American Dream.”

Thomas grew up in Woodhull, NY, a town with a population of 500. In 1942 he enlisted in the United States Marine Corps. He was 17 years old and would fight in the South Pacific as a turret gunner on a PBJ bomber. While stationed in North Carolina, he met his future wife, Virginia Scott. She was from Birmingham, Alabama and had joined the first group of Women Marines from the State of Alabama and became a USMC supply officer. Both served during World War II.

After the war, Tommy and Virginia moved to her hometown where he went to work for a finance company. He was not quite 21 years old. By the time he turned 25, he was the manager of the finance company’s branch office.

During an interview in 1972, Thomas stated that when he tried to register as a Republican in Alabama, since he had been a Republican all his life, he found that the Republican Party in Alabama was not anything you could call an organization. In his first years, he had to register and vote as a Democrat and was now highly motivated to start organizing and building the Republican Party. He became the regional coordinator and oversaw a five-county region for the Republican Party.

At age 26, he opened his first automobile dealership in Alabama and, when a Chevrolet dealership in Panama City became available, he moved the family to Bay County. He immediately
became politically involved and again he had to realize that the Republican Party in Florida merely existed on paper. He began building the organization and became the Chairman of the Republican Party in Bay County. “The story told in those days was that you had to go to Tommy Thomas Chevrolet just to see a Republican,” remembers Bill Cramer. Many attribute the growth of the Republican Party in Northwest Florida to Thomas’ abilities to win followers.

In those days, it would seem that Florida’s political balance hinged between the two largest car dealerships in Panama City with their owners being best friends who played poker together but were rivals in politics and business, Tommy Thomas and Charles Whitehead. Thomas was Chairman of Florida’s Republican Party and Whitehead, who owned the Ford dealership down the road, was the chairman of Florida’s Democratic Party. Both made history.

Tommy Thomas was one of Ronald Reagan’s first political supporters in the late 1960s when people had only heard of him as an actor. Thomas became one of Reagan’s closest advisors in the 1980s and was his campaign manager in Florida for all three times he ran for president.

Thomas was known for his ability to rise above partisanship. On the rare occasion that he thought the Democrats had a better candidate than his own party, he would support the better candidate regardless of the party affiliation.

The political engagement would not have been possible without a reliable team of employees and family members who would support him and advance the business. During their marriage, his wife Virginia co-hosted many political functions and was an active board member of many Bay
County charitieas. Today, her grandchildren remember her as the most dedicated and loving grandparent.

Tommy Thomas’ children, Carolyn and Bill, started working in the family business early on. Carolyn recollects, “It was the second summer after moving here. I was fourteen and started working in the service office. I did the filing and it was actually a messy job as the orders had carbon copies attached to them.” From filing repair orders, answering phone calls and, most memorably, filming commercials, she was a part of the daily business. She remarks that women were not permitted to own dealerships in those days and they also did not take repair orders or sell cars.

Bay County residents still talk about ‘Carolyn’s Camaro.’ The car was painted with zebra stripes and had a horn that played “See the U.S.A. in your Chevrolet.” She drove the car around town in her teens, often accompanied by her father in the passenger seat, blowing the fanfare horn.

She laughs about it today but there was a time when she was glad not be reminded of the TV appearances. “Most of the TV spots were Daddy’s ideas. He would come up with things that would make people laugh. Ideas like ’forget the sticker let’s dicker’ came to him at two o’clock in the morning.” The poignant commercials with her in the starring role and appearances by her father and his white poodle Tiger are still vividly remembered today, decades after they first aired.

In an interview in 1972 Tommy Thomas proudly remarked on the commercials and Carolyn’s good job but also admits that he did not think about the safety aspects and was now worried about his daughter’s safety.

“He was a dreamer,” Carolyn says. “Some of his ideas and dreams were very insightful, especially in retrospect. The discipline and the devotion to country in the Marine Corps had a profound influence on him.”

Chris Cramer reflects, “I think his generation thought big. He came from nothing and had nothing to lose and he saw opportunity. The people who fought in WWII were fighting for the American way of life. It instills a huge sense of patriotism and that generation lived their lives accordingly, with no regrets, they thought big and acted big. My grandfather was a car dealer at age 30. We are continuing today what he started over half a century ago which continued through our parents. It is humbling.”

Chris continues, “This is no exaggeration. Not a day goes by that someone doesn’t come up to me in the dealership, or at a civic event, and mention that they bought the first car from my grandfather or their family member benefited from something he did.”

“He walked into a room and commanded the room. He had phone calls, dinners, and Air Force One rides with presidents and was on the inside. Just being around that is a special feeling,” says Will.

Tommy Thomas died during bypass surgery when Will was 14 years old. “He was larger than life,” says his grandson.

 

[author image=”https://www.panamacityliving.com/media/2013/08/Val.jpg” ]Val studied communications and marketing in Germany and holds a marketing degree. She had a corporate career and has worked for nine years in media, PR and marketing internationally in Germany, England, the Caribbean and the United States. During an extended sailboat cruise n 2003, she traveled to the Gulf Coast and subsequently to Navarre, Florida and was immediately smitten with Northwest Florida. She started her first business in 2004 in Fort Walton Beach and as of July 2013, she became the sole owner and publisher of Panama City Living Magazine. She obtained her Merchant Mariner Credential (Captain’s License) right here in Panama City at SeaSchool and enjoys being on the water when she finds the time. [/author]